Enjoying La Paz and its Surroundings

By smithdm3 - Posted on 24 April 2007

Meg and I have enjoyed a couple of nice days here in La Paz. Sunday we took things pretty easy, sleeping in a bit before going for lunch at a friend of Meghan's in the city centre. This girl, Linda, has an amazing apartment, with a view that overlooks the city and the tallest snow covered peak in the area, Mt. Illimani. We had a nice lunch and Meg was able to meet some of Linda's other friends from the city.

After lunch we made our way to see a football game between two La Paz clubs - La Paz FC and The Strongest. The match wasn't consequential I guess, so there wasn't a huge crowd in the stadium but it was interesting anyway. I learned some Spanish swear words as we were sitting in an area filled with Strongest supporters and they were (I believe) upset 4-0.

After the game we made our way back to Meghan's house and went for dinner with Mike and Susana at the Swiss Restaurant where I had Llama for the first time, it was quite good covered in a pepper sauce and accompanied by some vegetables and spatzle.

Monday we went on a day trip to Tiwanaku, what was essentially the capital of a powerful culture of people from 1500 BC to 1200 AD when they were overrun by the Inca. At Tiawanaku there are a couple of small museums detailing the history and such of the people - how they lived, what they ate, their art, religious beliefs, etc. There are also ruins of temples at Tiwanku, the biggest of which is still being unearthed. They don't like tourists taking photos of these operations however as they indicate they are using 'new techniques'... right, my belief is that if other archealogists saw the pick axes and shovels they use they would blanche. After our tour we had a lunch of 'traditional' Tiwanaku food, including soup and llama :) Mmmm...

Last night we had a quiet evening at home and watched a movie, just enjoying each others company. Today we're going on a bit of a walking tour and making any final preparations for setting off to Peru tomorrow.